A Chinese zombie space rover is shambling around the Moon

This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of use.

Just a few days ago, China reported that its lunar rover, Yutu — named after the mythological Chinese jade rabbit that lives on the Moon — went gentle into that good lunar night. Now, just a handful of days later, the dead rover has awoken, shambling along the moonscape with its robot zombie bones.

The rover experienced some mechanical trouble on January 25, not too long before it intentionally powered down in preparation for the lunar night. A lunar cycle consists of 28 Earth days equally split between night and day. For the two-week period of a lunar night, Yutu was set to intentionally shut down in order to avoid the blisteringly cold temperatures of -274 Fahrenheit. A little radioisotope heater unit keeps Yutu warm enough to prevent from freezing over. However, what was reported as a “mechanical abnormality” prevented the rover from properly hibernating, likely facing a grim fate. Before the cold of the lunar night rolled in, Yutu signed off with an extremely creepy anthropomorphized message that sounded more like the rover was forcing us to sign off rather than signing off itself: “Goodnight, Earth. Goodnight, humanity.”

What the Chinese lunar program specialists overlooked, though, is that it takes more than two weeks of night to put Yutu to sleep. After the the rover was assumed dead, the program specialists are now reporting that the Jade Rabbit has awoken, though the initial mechanical abnormality is still present. Now that the rover is awake, the astronomers might be able to save it and continue exploring the lunar surface.

The revival of the rover has rallied Chinese social media users, prompting many to quip that the rover has resurrected because it craves the dumplings traditionally eaten on China’s Lantern Festival, which begins today. It would appear that the people of China’s social media networks are not aware of the true circumstances regarding Yutu’s revival. The rover isn’t craving dumplings, but is instead craving the metallic flesh of other lunar rovers, as it’s traditional for the living dead to crave the flesh of the living.

When it landed on December 15 of last year, Yutu made China only the third country to ever successfully perform a soft landing on the Moon, joining the United States and the former Soviet Union. Now, unfortunately, the human race can never return to the Moon due to the rampaging zombie rover that will certainly stalk and consume any visitor.

If they were here in NV, I would have found them by now. I’ve been all over this place.

Angel Ham

What about underneath?

mackenzie wunderlich

my Aunty Amelia got a new blue Land Rover LR4 only from
working part time off a home computer… helpful hints F­i­s­c­a­l­M­a­z­e­.­ℂ­o­m

Xplorer4x4

Nah they are in Roswell NM/Area 51.

adamrussell

Its a zombie rabbit rover. What if it tries to mate?

Dozerman

Fortunately, it takes two to tango.

Dozerman

Oh, god… what if… if it gets to our rovers left by the Apollo program and… stay with me now… learns to DRIVE them?!? what then? FAST ZOMBIE ROVERS!

The moon is fucked…

Pickybugger

This article is a joke! James stop writing such crap please!?

Guest

JAMES@! you suck don’t write suck shit articles!

Ivor O’Connor

Anthropomorphized messages, “jade rabbit”, “soft landing”, “sleep”… This is careful PR meant to draw in every technical dreamer in China. To lure generations of Chinese with an appreciative slow burn for the beautiful yet fragile aspect of space technology.

About 600 million Chinese are connected to the internet watching this the Jade Rabbit. One wonders if this is the start of a new Chinese identity.

VirtualMark

It’s baby language for idiots with no imagination.

Ivor O’Connor

That’s what the say about poetry but it does capture the imagination of quite a few in the liberal arts.

Canadian Geek

I liked the article, some detailed information with a grain of humor.

surin

“ It would appear that the people of China’s social media networks are not aware of the true circumstances regarding Yutu’s revival. The rover isn’t craving dumplings, but is instead craving the metallic flesh of other lunar rovers, as it’s traditional for the living dead to crave the flesh of the living.”

Dear writer, seriously?

Mr Moo

Whats this shit? you could have at least told us that the Chinese had lost control of the revived rover and its now hunting around the moon for reasons completely unknown to man.
would have gave us something to think about, my mind needs feeding

Giorgio

hahaha The day of the living rover…aaaaaaaaah. Liked the article, thumbs up :-D

ziffster

Yutu the “hopping” vampire as per Chinese zombie legend

squirrelboy

“the blisteringly cold temperatures of -274 Fahrenheit.”
Fahrenheit in an article about something in space. Really?

Damon

would you prefer -170°C? or are you more of an absolute person who might enjoy 103.15°K or 185.67°R? or something a little less conventional like -81.75°Rø or -212.5°Ré or 405°D or -515.15°N or even 0.0088884102°eV?

Batman

Yes, degrees Celsius would actually be helpful. You know, to THE REST OF THE WORLD

Nicole

Remember a few things.
A. The writer is obviously American.
B. This article isn’t meant to be very professional (look at the title).
C. I can literally go to GOOGLE, type in -274 degrees Fahrenheit to Celsius, like I always do for Cel to Fah, and have my answer (that Damon kindly provided).

Batman

Yes, I am aware the writer’s american. This does change a thing. For example, there is still no reason to be an ass to peoople who wonder why its Fahrenheit, since NASA provides almost all temperature measurement in Celsius primerily, or at least in Celsius as well.

Batman

Thanks Obama!

George Pickett

Extremetech editors: this is the type of article that belongs on Techcrunch. Keep an eye on their style and consciously avoid that.

Kirk Newsted

Oh please. The rover didn’t send a goodbye earth message. The controllers on the ground did that. Stop trying to humanize a piece of machinery.

P. Doherty

Oh please you can’t be that stupid. The fatal err triggered an event that echoed the “good bye” string -or whatever the programmer desired- before timing out the program that’s operating the rover. It’s nothing new in basic programming to say what ever you want during any “computer” event.

bizarreandbrilliant

Article tweeted over @BizarreandBrill

This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of use.

ExtremeTech Newsletter

Subscribe Today to get the latest ExtremeTech news delivered right to your inbox.